Blue Washington

Blue Washington

Born: February 11, 1898
Died: September 15, 1970
in Los Angeles, California, USA
Blue Washington was born on February 12, 1898 in Los Angeles, California, as Edgar Hughes Washington. He was an actor, known for There It Is (1928), Beggars of Life (1928) and Haunted Gold (1932). He was married to Marion Lenán. He died on September 15, 1970, at Mira Loma Hospital in Lancaster, California. He was laid to rest at Evergreen Memorial Park in Los Angeles. His son, Kenny Washington, was buried beside him in 1971.

Edgar 'Blue' Washington was also a ballplayer in the Negro League for the Los Angeles White Sox and (briefly) the Kansas City Monarchs.

He was a childhood friend of Frank Capra and appeared as John Wayne’s sidekick in Haunted Gold (1932), but it wasn’t always clear he was headed for Hollywood.  He played professional baseball in the 1910s and 1920s for two of the most glamorous African American teams in existence, and for a time it must have seemed obvious that this was his vocation.  In the end he chose a different path.  It certainly wasn’t easier — Hollywood at that time was only marginally more accepting of black contributions than the white major leagues.  The nickname 'Blue' came from Frank Capra, one of his best pals in the ethnically diverse surroundings of Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles.

Movies for Blue Washington...

Tarzan and the Slave Girl
Title: Tarzan and the Slave Girl
Released: June 23, 1950
Type: Movie
The Lionians, a tribe of lion worshippers, make a desperate attempt to find a cure for the mysterious disease plaguing their village. Their Chief decides to kidnap Jane and Lola, a half-breed nurse, in order to help repopulate his civilization. Tarzan must rescue them while fending off blowgun attacks from people called the Waddies who are disguised as bushes.
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Pinky
Title: Pinky
Character: Man (uncredited)
Released: September 28, 1949
Type: Movie
Pinky, a light skinned black woman, returns to her grandmother's house in the South after graduating from a Northern nursing school. Pinky tells her grandmother that she has been "passing" for white while at school in the North. In addition, she has fallen in love with a young white doctor, who knows nothing about her black heritage.
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Bomba, the Jungle Boy
Title: Bomba, the Jungle Boy
Character: Native Bearer (uncredited)
Released: March 20, 1949
Type: Movie
George Harland and his daughter Pat are photographers who discover a wild boy in the jungle. When Pat becomes lost, Bomba brings her back, overcoming plagues of locusts, forest fires and fierce wild animals.
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To the Ends of the Earth
Title: To the Ends of the Earth
Character: Binda Sha Henchman (uncredited)
Released: February 7, 1948
Type: Movie
A treasury agent becomes obsessed with exposing an international drug ring.
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Road to Morocco
Title: Road to Morocco
Character: Nubian Slave (uncredited)
Released: November 10, 1942
Type: Movie
Two carefree castaways on a desert shore find an Arabian Nights city, where they compete for the luscious Princess Shalmar.
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Tales of Manhattan
Title: Tales of Manhattan
Character: Shantytown Man (Robeson sequence) (uncredited)
Released: August 5, 1942
Type: Movie
Ten screenwriters collaborated on this series of tales concerning the effect a tailcoat cursed by its tailor has on those who wear it. The video release features a W.C. Fields segment not included in the original theatrical release.
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It Happened in Flatbush
Title: It Happened in Flatbush
Character: Courtroom Spectator (uncredited)
Released: May 28, 1942
Type: Movie
A washed up baseball player returns to Brooklyn to manage his old team but an old sports reporter is eager to prove that he is a loser.
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Lady for a Night
Title: Lady for a Night
Character: Man Sitting Next to Chloe (uncredited)
Released: January 5, 1942
Type: Movie
Gambling boat operator Jenny Blake throws over her gambler beau Jack Morgan in order to marry into high society.
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Sundown
Title: Sundown
Character: Askari Veteran (uncredited)
Released: October 31, 1941
Type: Movie
Englishmen fighting Nazis in Africa discover an exotic mystery woman living among the natives and enlist her aid in overcoming the Germans.
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A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob
Title: A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob
Character: Opera House Doorman (uncredited)
Released: March 14, 1941
Type: Movie
Steve is a shy quiet man who is an executive for a shipping firm. He meets Dot at the Opera where she had his seats and the next day she shows up as his temporary secretary. Then Coffee Cup comes to town to see Dot, his gal. When Steven is with Cecilia, everything is boring. When he is with Dot and Coffee Cup, everything is exciting and he falls for Dot. But Coffee is getting out of the Navy in a few days and he plans to marry Dot.
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The Long Voyage Home
Title: The Long Voyage Home
Character: Black Cook on Glencairn
Released: November 16, 1940
Type: Movie
The crew of the merchant ship Glencairn hope to survive a transatlantic crossing during World War II. Adapted from four Eugene O'Neill one-act plays.
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The Light That Failed
Title: The Light That Failed
Character: Bit Part
Released: December 24, 1939
Type: Movie
A London artist struggles to complete one last painting before going blind.
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Gone with the Wind
Title: Gone with the Wind
Character: Renegade's Companion (uncredited)
Released: December 15, 1939
Type: Movie
The spoiled daughter of a Georgia plantation owner conducts a tumultuous romance with a cynical profiteer during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era.
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Way Down South
Title: Way Down South
Character: Slave
Released: July 21, 1939
Type: Movie
In the pre-Civil War South, a plantation owner dies and leaves all his possessions, including his slaves, to his young son. While the deceased treated his slaves decently, his corrupt executor abuses them unmercifully, beating them without provocation, and he is planning to sell off the father'e estate--including the slaves--at the earliest opportunity so he and his mistress can steal the money and move to France. The young boy doesn't want to sell his father's estate or break up an of the slave families, and he has to find someone to help him thwart the crooked executor's plans.
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Charlie Chan in Reno
Title: Charlie Chan in Reno
Character: Man in Line-Up
Released: June 16, 1939
Type: Movie
Mary Whitman has gone to Reno to obtain a divorce. While there she is arrested on suspicion of murdering a fellow guest at her hotel (which specializes in divorcers). There are many others at the hotel who wanted the victim out of the way. Charlie comes from his home in Honolulu to solve the murder.
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Rose of Washington Square
Title: Rose of Washington Square
Character: Prisoner (uncredited)
Released: May 5, 1939
Type: Movie
Rose Sargent, a Roaring '20s singer, becomes a Ziegfeld Follies star as her criminal husband gets deeper in trouble.
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Twelve Crowded Hours
Title: Twelve Crowded Hours
Character: First Bartender (uncredited)
Released: February 23, 1939
Type: Movie
An ace reporter with a girlfriend nails a numbers racketeer for murders.
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Kentucky
Title: Kentucky
Character: Bill
Released: December 30, 1938
Type: Movie
Young lovers Jack and Sally are from families that compete to send horses to the 1938 Kentucky Derby, but during the Civil War, her family sided with the South while his sided with the North--and her Uncle Peter will have nothing to do with Jack's family.
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The Cowboy and the Lady
Title: The Cowboy and the Lady
Character: Dock Worker (uncredited)
Released: November 17, 1938
Type: Movie
Mary Smith decides after a lifetime of being a shut-in to do something wild while her father is out campaigning for the presidency, so she takes off for the family's home in West Palm Beach and inadvertently becomes romantically entangled with earnest cowboy Stretch Willoughby. Neither the dalliance nor the cowboy fit with the upper class image projected by her esteemed father, forcing her to choose.
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Over the Wall
Title: Over the Wall
Character: Convict Playing Guitar
Released: April 2, 1938
Type: Movie
When a singing, song-writing prizefighter is framed for murder and sent to the state pen, his girlfriend sets out to prove his innocence.
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Wells Fargo
Title: Wells Fargo
Character: Sam - Coachman
Released: December 31, 1937
Type: Movie
In the 1840s, Ramsey MacKay, the driver for the struggling Wells Fargo mail and freight company, will secure an important contract if he delivers fresh oysters to Buffalo from New York City. When he rescues Justine Pryor and her mother, who are stranded in a broken wagon on his route, he doesn't let them slow him down and gives the ladies an exhilirating ride into Buffalo. He arrives in time to obtain the contract and is then sent by company president Henry Wells to St. Louis to establish a branch office.
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Souls at Sea
Title: Souls at Sea
Character: Ship Slave (uncredited)
Released: September 3, 1937
Type: Movie
Michael 'Nuggin' Taylor and Powdah save lives during a sea tragedy in this story about the slave trade on the high seas during 1842.
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Menace
Title: Menace
Character: Kenya Manservant
Released: November 22, 1934
Type: Movie
A psychotic man stalks three innocent people whom he believes are responsible for his brother's death.
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King of the Arena
Title: King of the Arena
Character: Sambo
Released: June 1, 1933
Type: Movie
Mysterious deaths have been occurring in the same towns as Miller's Circus and the Governor has sent Ken Kenton to investigate. Ken joins the show but when he realizes that Bargoff is involved, Bargoff has fled and taken Mary Hiller as a hostage. The trail leads to Baron Petroff who concocted the deadly chemical and Ken quickly finds himself the Baron's prisoner.
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Haunted Gold
Title: Haunted Gold
Character: Clarence Washington Brown
Released: December 17, 1932
Type: Movie
John Mason returns to the Sally Ann mine to claim his half share. Janet Cater also returns although her father lost his half share to Joe Ryan. Ryan and his gang are also there to get the gold. A mysterious Phantom is also present. Mason's plan to expose Ryan as an outlaw and to force him to turn his share to Janet works. But when distracted by the Phantom, John is made a prisoner by the gang.
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Guilty Hands
Title: Guilty Hands
Character: Johnny (uncredited)
Released: August 22, 1931
Type: Movie
A district attorney commits the perfect murder when he kills his daughter's womanizing fiancé and then tries framing the fiancé's lover.
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Lucky Larkin
Title: Lucky Larkin
Character: Hambone
Released: February 1, 1930
Type: Movie
Colonel Lee, a homesteader, is the object of terrorists who want to drive him off the range so that his horses cannot be entered in the county races, and he refuses an offer of Martin Brierson to buy him out. Pete, Brierson's brother, in hiding because of his criminal record, burns the colonel's barn and injures his horses. Convinced of Brierson's responsibility for the terror tactics, "Lucky" Larkin plans to ride Tarzan, the colonel's pet colt. Brierson does his best to disqualify the horse, but Larkin tricks him and wins the race. Larkin captures Pete and forces him to confess. The Brierson brothers are brought to justice, and Larkin wins Emmy Lou, a homesteader's daughter.
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Parade of the West
Title: Parade of the West
Character: Sambo
Released: January 19, 1930
Type: Movie
Bud Rand, a cowboy who is charged with the care of Little Billy Rand, accepts an offer to appear with Copeland's Wild West Show to ride a horse called "Mankiller." Dude, Copeland's righthand man, resents Bud's attentions to Mary, one of the performers, and when they fight it out, Bud is the victor. In revenge Dude loosens the cinch on the horse.....
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Welcome Danger
Title: Welcome Danger
Character: Thorne's Henchman (uncredited)
Released: October 12, 1929
Type: Movie
A gentle botany student has to toughen up to replace his father as chief of police.
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Rio Rita
Title: Rio Rita
Character: Fremont Bank Robber
Released: September 15, 1929
Type: Movie
Capt. James Stewart pursues the bandit "The Kinkajou" over the Mexican border and falls in love with Rita. He suspects, that her brother is the bandit.
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Black Magic
Title: Black Magic
Character: Unit
Released: July 6, 1929
Type: Movie
On a South Seas island, "three white derelicts drink away memories of the past. After many adventures during which a girl enters the picture, the three are rehabilitated and everything turns out happily."
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Weary River
Title: Weary River
Character: Prisoner in Bathtub (uncredited)
Released: February 10, 1929
Type: Movie
A gangster is put in prison, but finds salvation through music while serving his time. Again on the outside, he finds success elusive and temptations abound.
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The Phantom City
Title: The Phantom City
Character: 'Blue'
Released: December 27, 1928
Type: Movie
A weird letter tells our heroes to go to a ghost town which has an abandoned mine. There they contend with bad guys looking for hidden gold. They are aided by a mysterious Phantom.
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Beggars of Life
Title: Beggars of Life
Character: Black Mose
Released: September 22, 1928
Type: Movie
After killing her treacherous step-father, a girl tries to escape the country with a young vagabond. She dresses as a boy, they hop freight trains, quarrel with a group of hobos, and steal a car in their attempt to escape the police, and reach Canada.
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The Smart Set
Title: The Smart Set
Character: Polo Fan
Released: March 24, 1928
Type: Movie
A cocky, arrogant young playboy is expelled from his American polo team shortly before the big match with England.
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There It Is
Title: There It Is
Character: The Butler
Released: January 1, 1928
Type: Movie
When a mysterious figure appears to cause a series of disruptions at the Frisbie Home in New York, word goes out to Scotland Yard that the Fuzz-Faced Phantom is at work. Soon, Charley MacNeesha and his assistant MacGregor are sent across the ocean to investigate.
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The Blood Ship
Title: The Blood Ship
Character: Negro
Released: July 18, 1927
Type: Movie
A disgraced sea captain signs on as a crewman on a cargo ship. He discovers that the vessel is captained by the very man who stole his ship, a sadistic brute who also took the former captain's wife and daughter. The ship's crew is composed mostly of sailors who were shanghai'ed aboard and are kept in line by the brutal captain and his even more fearsome first mate. The captain and one of his fellow crewmen--who has fallen in love with the man's daughter, who now belongs to the brutal captain--try to unite the crew to end the brutal reign of the captain and his henchman. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2007.
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Haunted Spooks
Title: Haunted Spooks
Character: Butler (uncredited)
Released: March 14, 1920
Type: Movie
After numerous failed attempts to commit suicide, our hero (Lloyd) runs into a lawyer who is looking for a stooge to stand in as a groom in order to secure an inheritance for his client (Davis). The inheritance is a house, which her scheming uncle "haunts" so that he can scare them off and claim the property.
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Rowdy Ann
Title: Rowdy Ann
Character: The Train Porter
Released: May 24, 1919
Type: Movie
Ann is one tough cowgirl. After she beats up Hank, her parents send her East to college, hoping she'll come back a lady.